The Problem with iOS 6 Maps

gga

Apple’s iOS 6 was released last Friday, and unfortunately for Apple
the biggest news is ‘Mapgate’. And there really are plenty of
examples of pretty crazy mapping to be found. To be honest,
it looks like the 3D fly-over view just didn’t expect to encounter
bridges. Amidst the hilariously wrong maps and weird looking bridges,
the complaints about missing public transport directions have been easy
to miss.

By all accounts, Apple really seem to have screwed their customers
here. Which seems like a strange thing to do.

Coming back to those missing public transport directions for a moment. I
haven’t always lived in the US. In the rest of the world, services run
out of the US are very frustrating: data is either completely missing
or very, very slow to update. I have heard specific complaints about
the difficulties many public transport operators have providing
accurate routing information to Google. Allowing third parties to
provide routing information is a good thing. Surprisingly enough, I
trust the NSW government more than Google to provide accurate
directions across Sydney.

Remember, Google Maps is actually pretty horribly inaccurate. I’ve
long since stopped using it to search for businesses: instead I’ll
find the business’ web site, get their address, and then search for
that. But, Google Maps is far, far better than Apple Maps. Google Maps
has had eight years to get as good as it is. When it first launched it
was pretty pitiful, and simply couldn’t search for addresses outside
of the US. Apple is being judged against a product with a lot of
history.

While there isn’t such a thing as a first-mover advantage, perhaps
there is a first-eight-years-mover advantage?

But if Apple is expected to start improving their maps from feedback
of users, I’m left with a question. This isn’t Apple’s mapping
data. It’s primarily TomTom’s. TomTom have been doing this longer
than Google. And what have they been doing all this time?